First, Breakfast

Yes, breakfast is still the most important meal of the day. Now, here's the benefits to prove it.

Control Your Weight: After you've slept the night, you need to "break" your "fast" as you haven't eaten since the day before. When your body doesn't "break" the overnight "fast", your body begins to conserve energy as it doesn't know the next time you'll decide to eat. In other words, your metabolism slows down and you're burning less calories. When lunch time comes or the next time you eat, you're body is likely to crave energy-dense foods instead of well-balanced meal. The same thing can be said for later meals or snacks. If you don't eat breakfast to restrict calories, don't because you'll make you for it later in the day and more. Tip: Start eating breakfast to curb you late night snacking.

Better concentration and be more productive throughout the morning: Researchers believe this is due to replenishing glucose, the brain's main energy source. Breakfast is especially important for children and adolescents. According to the American Dietetic Association, children who eat a healthy breakfast are more likely to have better concentration, problem-solving skills and eye-hand coordination. They may also be more alert, creative and less likely to miss days of school. Tip: If you have no time to eat breakfast or don't feel like eating first thing, take a piece of fruit and baggie of high fiber cereal to eat on the way to work.

Consume more vitamins and minerals and less fat and cholesterol during the day. While the reason is unclear, one study claims that increasing daily eating frequency is associated with consuming more favorable nutrients and fewer less favorable nutrients, such as dietary cholesterol. Tip: Aim for 3 of the 4 food groups at breakfast. For example, glass of milk, piece of fruit, and toast.

Have more strength and endurance. People who eat breakfast — and thus have higher energy levels — may engage in more physical activity than may people who don't eat breakfast. Tip: Make 2 changes at once: Start eating breakfast regularly and start a new fitness activity.

What is Normal Eating?

While eating disorders and the obesity epidemic appear to be completely different issues, there can be a common ground of a troubled relationship with food. What you should and shouldn’t eat, what you ate yesterday, what you might eat tomorrow—food is always on your mind. You’ve done it all: dieting, bingeing, depriving yourself of nourishment, living to eat, obsessing about weight, stuffing your emotions with food, and yo-yoing wildly between sizes. You wish you could have a positive relationship with food, but don’t know how.
The only permanent way to establish the relationship with food you’ve always wanted is to become a “normal” eater—to say “yes” and “no” to food in just the right balance in order to maintain a healthy, comfortable weight.

Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it—not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings.

My child has started drinking “energy drinks” such as Red Bull. Is this a concern?

Energy drinks such as Red Bull are marketed as providing improved energy, concentration and athletic performance. Ingredients in these drinks include substances such as caffeine, taurine (an amino acid, one of the building blocks of protein) and glucuronolactone (a carbohydrate).

Energy drinks contain similar amounts of caffeine as a cup of coffee and approximately three times the amount of caffeine as a similar amount of cola type soft drink. For example, one can of Red Bull contains 80 milligrams (mg) of caffeine. Health Canada recommends that children 10-12 years of age limit their caffeine intake to no more than 85 mg per day.

Energy drinks should not be confused with sports drinks such as Gatorade, which can be useful to re-hydrate the body after engaging in intense workouts lasting longer than an hour. Energy drinks are not thirst quenchers and may actually lead to dehydration.

Health Canada has reports of incidences of adverse reactions such as electrolyte disturbances, nausea and vomiting and heart irregularities involving energy drinks. The incidents involved improper use of energy drinks such as drinking them with alcohol or drinking them in greater quantities than recommended.

If you choose to use an energy drink be aware of the following:
-the amount of caffeine in one can of Red Bull is approximately the daily limit of caffeine for a pre-teen
-the label of Red Bull suggests a limit of no more than two cans per day
-the label of Red Bull reads Not recommended for children
-Health Canada does not recommend mixing Red Bull with alcohol
-there are many other energy drinks on the market which have not been evaluated by Health Canada; it is wise to read the label and contact a health professional if you have questions.

Bottom Line: If you are looking for improved energy and concentration then consider the benefits of regular meals and snacks and adequate consumption of water throughout the day. Adequate sleep and regular activity are also important.

Reference: Health Canada. It’s Your Health Fact-sheet “Safe Use of Energy Drinks”. June 2005.

Why Family Meals?

Whether you have family together always, sometimes, or never, there is something here you need to hear. Family meals are important for so many obvious and some not so obvious reasons. I could rant about all the research to support family meals, but what speaks just as loud to me is my experience in nutrition counseling. A couple of my favourite meal time don’ts: I’m sorry, a new pool table is not reason for a throwing out a kitchen table or no or your 7 year-old daughter cannot prepare dinner for herself while you eat in your bedroom.

Meals support food regulation and appropriate growth, make you a family, support good parenting, provide children with social and emotional support, connect us to our history, reassure children they will be fed, teach children to behave well in polite company, and teach children to like a variety of food.

To make meal times rewarding: parents must choose food they find rewarding to plan, prepare, provide, and eat, offer everyone in the family the same meal, put four or five foods and let everyone pick and choose from what is on the table, match familiar with unfamiliar food, favorite with not-so-favorite, teach and expect your children to behave nicely, and understand enough about children’s normal eating behaviour to feel successful with feeding. Include infants at the table (even if they are not eating all the food), put meals before nutrition, control the food supply while allowing choices, and accept slow progress if you are starting family meals for the first time.
Once family meals are occuring, the next logical step is making the meals nutritious. The meal should provide four to five foods (protein source, grains or starchy foods, 1 or 2 fruits or a vegetables or broth, milk, and butter, margarine, salad dressing or other fatty foods. The key principle here is to be considerate without catering. Parents can do this by following these guidelines: don’t make (or expect) anybody to eat – even yourself, let children (and other people) pick and choose from what is on the table, and include enough fat. For example, “3 more bites and then you can have dessert”, encouraging certain foods for nutrition “eat all your brocolli”, or having forbidden foods ie. no chips, cookies. Goal is to have structure but the child still decides. If you would like more info on family meals, check out the book Your Child’s Weight Helping Without Harming Birth Through Adolescence by Ellyn Satter. What tips do you have that you’ve used with your kids?

Children's sleep important to prevent obesity

You probably have enough reasons why you want your baby/toddler to sleep, but you probably did not think of preventing obesity in your child. Research has been done in children making a link between infant sleep and overweight. Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Boston tracked the sleep habits of children from birth to age three. She and her colleagues found that even after taking into account the mothers' BMI (Body Mass Index), infants who slept less than 12 hours a day had a higher BMI for their age and sex, higher skinfold thickness, and were more likely to be overweight at age three than children who slept 12 hours or more as infants.
The authors note the amount of TV watching had a minimal effect on the associations between sleep and overweight, although the combination of not enough sleep and more time in front of the TV caused the highest risk weight problems.
The researchers conclude clinicians and parents would benefit from using their research to find ways to improve quality and length of sleep for infants. Goodnight.
SOURCE: Short Sleep Duration in Infancy and Risk of Childhood Overweight Elsie M. Taveras; Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman; Emily Oken; Erica P. Gunderson; Matthew W. Gillman Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162(4):305-311.

How to Stop Your Mindless Eating

By following this exercise, you can control your mindless eating. I recently listened to a talk on emotional eating by Colleen Cannon PhD, R Psych and Wendy Shah, RD, and you can change your eating behaviours by changing your thoughts and emotions.

Step 1: First grab a pen and paper. Consider what thoughts and emotions (feelings) influence our eating behaviours. Make a list of 20 reasons of why you eat.

Step 2: Now, divide each of reasons into one of 3 categories: 1. Stomach - this would be physiological reasons for eating ie. hunger. 2. Mouth - this is when your craving a specific food or texture ie. eating ice cream on a hot day. 3. Heart - this is all the emotional reasons (probably what most of your list is) ie. bored, angry, celebration with friends, etc.

Step 3: List 6 things you do to comfort or nuture yourself.

Step 4: Cross out all items that include any food, are in the distant future (ie. vacation you have in 2 months), and anything that takes a significant amount of time or money. Hopefully, you have something left on your list. These items should be something you can do to comfort/nuture yourself quickly instead of eating. For example, after a difficult work day instead going for your favourite comfort food, use something off your list like going for walk.

Step 5: Write down the intials of 3 people that mean a lot to you.

Step 6: Write down their birthday or phone number as quickly as possible. What did you think about as you writing? Getting that number down, right? Hence, any type of mind game can be a perfect distraction.

Step 7: If your list of 6 items is all crossed out or even if its not, brainstorm again for some distractions. Your list may include talking to a friend, listening to music, reading a book, some sort of activity, being outdoors, crosswords, or other mindgames.
Now you the tools to turn your mindless eating into mind full eating by using distractions to change your behaviours, thoughts, and emotions. For more information, check out Craving Change's upcoming website at http://www.cravingchange.ca/.

8 Reason YOU need to take a daily multivitamin

8. Perfect way to get your vitamin D throughout the year. Forget taking a supplement solely for vitamin, you can get the same amount from a multivitamin. Supplementation with vitamin D may help prevent cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's Disease, aid in treatment of autoimmune disease such as Diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure, and may boost your immunity.
7. Reduce neural tube defects like spina bifida by as much as 70%. Whether your planning or not, all women of childbearing age should take a multivitamin with folic acid.
6. A mulitvit costs less than most other dietary supplements. All those fancy 'organic' and 'natural' vitamin products and often contain similar contents to any brand of multivitamin.
5. Get Smart! Improved eye health and brain function have been linked with multivitamin.
4. Take a chill pill. Daily multivitamin helps to alleviate stress.
3. Improve immune function and reduce infectious disease. Potentially, cutting your sick days in half.
2. Taking a multivitamin may aid in weight loss. Studies have higher multivitamin in lower BMI. As well, daily use may help you lose weight in conjunction with calorie controlled diet, and control your appetite.
1. Consider it insurance for your diet. Too many studies have shown that most diets -- even fairly healthy ones fall well below Recommended Dietary Allowance for many nutrients. Supplements are a proven bridge between what we should eat and what we actually eat.